Don’t sound the alarm buttons just yet over the shake up at the Pentagon. This week, a senior defense official said that a reorganization was coming to the Defense Intelligence Agency with the creation of the Defense Clandestine Service. The new service will expand the agency’s espionage operation beyond war zones and step up its engagement in human intelligence — an arena dominated for years by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun’s military affairs reporter, writes “that the officers — some military, some civilian — will work alongside CIA counterparts in places such as Africa, where al-Qaida has grown more active, and Asia, where Chinese military expansion and North Korean and Iranian weapons ambitions are drawing increasing U.S. concern.”

Here’s a look at some hotspots that the Pentagon’s new spy agency will likely keep an eye on. We’ll continue to look at intelligence and military trends in upcoming posts on The Darkroom.

NORTH KOREA — The Defense Department has noted that North Korea’s missile and nuclear program poses a threat to the security and stability in Asia. “North Korea’s leadership is emphasizing policy continuity under Kim Jong-un, which DIA anticipates will include continued pursuit of nuclear and missile capabilities for strategic deterrence and international prestige, as well as to gain economic and political concessions,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Ronald L. Burgess in his testimony to Congress on Feb. 16, 2012. (Bobby Yip/Reuters)

People in South Korea watch a television broadcast reporting that North Korea launched a long-range missile on April 13, 2012. North Korea launched the missile, which disintegrated midair and fell into the sea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

This picture, taken by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on April 15, 2012, shows North Korea leader Kim Jong-un waving as he reviews a military parade commemorating the 100th birth anniversary of former North Korean President Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un delivered his first public speech and vowed to push for a stronger military. (KNS/AFP/Getty Images)

IRAN — The Defense Department has noted that Iran remains a threat to U.S. interests. “Tehran poses a threat to U.S. interests through its regional ambitions, support to terrorist and militant groups, and improving military and nuclear capabilities,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Ronald L. Burgess in his Feb. 16, 2012 testimony to Congress. “Iran also continues efforts to gain regional power by countering Western influence, expanding ties with its neighbors, and advocating Islamic solidarity while supporting and arming groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Levant.” (Handout/AFP/Getty Images)

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Said Jalili reacts during a news conference on April 14, 2012 as Iran and six world powers open talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program in Istanbul. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Robert Wood addresses journalists during a news conference March 8, 2012 at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. World powers said this week that mooted talks with Iran must be “serious” and urged Tehran to allow UN inspectors access to a military base thought to be central to its suspected nuclear weapons drive. (Dieter Nagl/AFP/Getty Images)

CHINA — The Defense Department continues to monitor China’s military expansion and modernization as well as its growth in intelligence collection. “DIA estimates China spent as much as $183 billion on military-related goods and services in 2011, compared to the $93 billion Beijing reported in its official military budget,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Ronald L. Burgess in his testimony to Congress on Feb. 16, 2012. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Paramilitary soldiers train outside their barracks in Beijing on March 19, 2012. Military spending in Asia will top that in Europe for the first time this year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said in its annual assessment of the strength of the world’s armies. China leads the way in Asia and is engaged in a modernization program of its forces and military hardware financed by its rapid economic development. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

A member of the Philippine marines reconnaissance team (foreground) secures the beach as U.S. and Philippine marines arrive during a beach raid simulation as part of their joint military exercise April 23, 2012 in Puerto Princesa. A senior US commander in the Pacific reaffirmed the United States’ mutual defense treaty with the Philippines on April 22, amid increased tensions between the archipelago and China. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)

REGIONS IN AFRICA — Recent reports indicate that a surge in Islamist violence has shifted to Africa in countries like Somalia, Nigeria, and Mali, where several militant groups have allied themselves with al-Qaida and adopted radical Islamic ideologies. These groups include the Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and Boko Haram, which have all publicly voiced their intention to target Westerners, including the United States, and disrupt peace-keeping efforts in countries where they are based. (Stuart Price/AFP/Getty Images)

AL- SHABAAB: Based in southern Somalia, Al-Shabaab is a so-called “clan-based insurgent and terrorist group,” which began as the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts in 2006. That year the group took over much of the southern region before being defeated in January 2007. Since then, the group has claimed an affiliation with al-Qaida. According to the National Counterterrorism Center, “the group has exerted temporary and, at times, sustained control over strategic locations in southern and central Somalia by recruiting, sometimes forcibly, regional sub-clans and their militias, using guerrilla asymmetrical warfare and terrorist tactics against the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and its allies, African Union peacekeepers, and nongovernmental aid organizations.” Above, is a photo of militants belonging to the Al-Shabaab during a show of force in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Oct. 21, 2010. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

AL- SHABAAB: In this photo taken on March 22, 2012 by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team, four suspected al-Shabaab insurgents walk on the grounds of the Mogadishu stadium after their capture during a joint security operation conducted by soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali security services. The four men all in their mid-twenties, were found in possession of a rocket-propelled grenade, two submachine guns and 84 rounds of ammunition, which they had been using to launch attacks against Somali and AU forces. (Stuart Price/AFP/Getty Images)

AL- SHABAAB: Al-Shabaab recruits walk down a street in the Deniile district of Somalian capital, Mogadishu, on March 5, 2012, following their graduation. The walls of the former al-Shabaab base in Baidoa, Somalia, are littered with rudimentary drawings of machine guns and tanks, a note reading “Fear God, don’t write on these walls” and a sketch of an Al-Qaida flag, homage to the rebel group’s international allies. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images)

BOKO HARAM: Boko Haram is a Nigerian-based group whose objective is to overthrow the country’s government and replace it with an Islamic institution. Most recently as of August 2011, the group took responsibility for a vehicle-bomb attack on UN offices in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. According to the National Counterterrorism Center, the attack “marked the group’s first lethal operation against Western interests.” The Center also reported hat “a purported Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and promised future targeting of US and Nigerian Government interests.” Above, is a file photo of a screen grab made on October 21, 2010, from a video allegedly showing members of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

BOKO HARAM: A victim of a bomb blast, which ripped through the UN offices in Abuja, is loaded into an ambulance on August 26, 2011, after a car rammed into the building. The attack drew global attention to Boko Haram, the militant group from northern Nigeria, which claimed responsibility for the attack and a string of later bombings that killed hundreds. As the bombings have grown in frequency in recent months, the Nigerian government and Western security officials have begun to grapple with the exact nature of the threat. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

BOKO HARAM: Security officials assess the scene of a bomb blast on April 8, 2012 in Nigeria’s northern city of Kaduna. Suspected members of Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed four people and a large undetonated bomb was found in Kano on Monday, authorities said, a day after at least 36 people were killed in a car bomb near a church in northern Kaduna. (Stringer/Reuters)

AQIM: Al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb is an Algerian-based group focused on overthrowing the Algerian government. It has a formal affiliation with Al-Qaida and has publicly announced its intention to attack Western targets. According to the National Counterterrorism Center, the group “employs conventional terrorist tactics, including guerrilla-style ambushes and mortar, rocket, and IED attacks” and suicide bombings. Above, is a photo that apparently shows Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) chief Abou Moussab speaking at an unknown location. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

Pentagon creating new spy service
Hundreds of officers to gather intelligence on China, N. Korea, AfricaBy Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore SunThe Pentagon is creating a new intelligence service aimed at gathering information on terrorist networks, weapons of mass destruction and other emerging concerns, a senior defense official said Monday.The new Defense Clandestine Service will draw several hundred officers from the existing Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program.

The officers — some military, some civilian — will work alongside CIA counterparts in places such as Africa, where al-Qaida has grown more active, and Asia, where Chinese military expansion and North Korean and Iranian weapons ambitions are drawing increasing U.S. concern.

One Comment

Franklin
Apr 27, 2012 @
23:12:51

This will help us if we have to go to war with China…and I personally am sick and tired of tolerating their aid to North Korea. It’s disgusting and immoral…and it shows how the Chinese nation has truly fallen low.

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